- THE MARTIN PAPERS: MY LIFE WITH MARTIN AMIS | More Intelligent Life
 Jul 2, 6:48pm  (1 review) literature, humour http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story...
I don't normally like gossip but this book about Martin Amis written by ex-girlfriend Julie Kavanagh is quite humorous.
...The see-saw was about to tip. That spring Martin learnt that he had won the Somerset Maugham Award for "The Rachel Papers", a tremendous accolade given to "the best writer under 35", with Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney among past winners. Kingsley had won the same prize in 1955 for "Lucky Jim", but had been furious at its stipulation that the money be spent on foreign travel. It was a deportation order, he complained to Philip Larkin, "forced to go abroad, bloody forced, mun". Being abroad was no problem for Martin, who had decided to finish his second novel in Spain later that year--it was just getting there. Even a 40-minute flight from Paris required a numbing amount of brandy and Valium cocktails. I can still see him tipsily overbalancing as he held onto our suitcase handle on the carousel, and being carried round on the little paunch he had then, legs bicycling in the air...
- Natasha Henderson - Natasha Henderson - Canadian Artist
- Jun 20, 4:41pm
 (1 review) arts http://natashahenderson.com/ 
Natasha Henderson's Artist Statement:
Painting is a method of recognizing and representing history and time. As a process, painting simultaneously is steeped in history yet refers to the creation of history. Painting is older than recorded civilization, continuing through time and different civilisations with pertinence and importance, despite recent claims that it is a "dead" medium. I am devoted to painting and all its potentials.
- u&i
- Jun 9, 6:06pm (1 review) fashion http://retail123.dyndns.org:8888/www.uan...
U&I is my favourite store in Montreal and now the owner has chosen to go online, so has a favour to this very kind man that alway give a great customer service as well as being in a perennial positive state of mind--I owe him this--he so deserves it.
- The New York Times & Log In
- May 1, 12:03pm (1 review) books http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/...
It would be a lie to say that I like this article--Bissell is lazy and much more could have been used to make the reader understand Dave Wallace state of mind beside the obvious references to suicide or death. DFW killed himself last fall at the age of 46.
Excerpt.
Over the last six months, at least, this is what I have been telling myself. For all the obvious extraliterary reasons, "This Is Water" is often an extremely painful reading experience, and in this opinion I cannot imagine I will be alone. When Wallace defines thinking as "learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think," when he describes his own mental "default setting" as one of selfishness and solipsism and despair and then explains that part of being an adult is developing the discipline "to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over," and when he suggests that the "capital-T Truth" of life "is about making it to 30, or maybe even 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head," his intended audience of college graduates floats away, and the haunting, answerless questions crowd suffocatingly in. Whom, you wonder, was he really speaking to?
- Bryan A. Garner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Mar 31, 8:50pm (1 review) linguistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_A._Ga...
ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND USAGE
Garner is also a grammarian and has written books on general English usage, including Garner's Modern American Usage. When the University of Chicago Press undertook the 15th edition of the influential Chicago Manual of Style, Garner contributed a chapter on grammar and usage. At 95 pages, that section of the book (Chapter 5) is an accessible, readable explanation of the principles of traditional grammar.
- Edge: DOES THE EMPIRICAL NATURE OF SCIENCE CONTRADICT THE REVELATORY NATURE...
- Mar 30, 5:13pm (2 reviews) philosophy http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/coyne09/...
DOES THE EMPIRICAL NATURE OF SCIENCE CONTRADICT THE REVELATORY NATURE OF FAITH?
Introduction
"The real question," writes biologist Jerry Coyne in his New Republic article "Seeing And Believing", is whether there is a philosophical incompatibility between religion and science. Does the empirical nature of science contradict the revelatory nature of faith? Are the gaps between them so great that the two institutions must be considered essentially antagonistic?
*For some it might be too long of an article to read but for me it was a delight.
- David Foster Wallace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Mar 20, 5:24pm (2 reviews) writing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foste...
Wallace was born in 1962 in Ithaca, New York to James Donald Wallace and Sally Foster Wallace. In his early childhood, Wallace lived in Champaign, Illinois. In fourth grade, he moved to Urbana and attended Yankee Ridge school. As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior tennis player.
He attended his father's alma mater, Amherst College, and majored in English and philosophy, with a focus on modal logic and mathematics. His philosophy senior thesis on modal logic, titled Richard Taylor's 'Fatalism' and the Semantics of Physical Modality (described in James Ryerson's 2008 New York Times essay "Consider the Philosopher") was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize. His other senior thesis, in English, would later become his first novel. Wallace graduated with summa cum laude honors for both theses in 1985, and in 1987 received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Arizona...
* I very much like Dave Wallace's writing but his fiction is not easy reading.
- Hark, a vagrant: 183
- Mar 19, 6:33pm (16 reviews) history, humour http://www.harkavagrant.com/
...Making history funny to people who don't know their Sir John A. from McDonald's is a challenge, she says. And if you're not a history buff and don't know, for instance, who Edwin Booth is, you probably won't get all the jokes. Then again, if you know these subjects too well you might be irritated by her generous use of artistic license. Rather than sticking to the facts, she imagines the inner lives of her characters, making them say things that sound modern, says John Martz, chair of the Canadian chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. Her subjects are often long dead, yet they seem like real people, albeit with oversized personalities or embarrassing foibles. In one cartoon, Brian Mulroney has a secret fetish for all things American. In another, Pierre Trudeau scolds Margaret for partying too much, and is then rebuffed with an impudent "You're not my dad...."
- stream of consciousness / thought oasis & Index page
- Jan 25, 6:33pm (3 reviews) cognitive-science, humour http://www.thought-oasis.net/forum/index...
Although I do not intend to leave SU the above link is my new hang out; this forum is run by disconcision and Morosph for stumblers, ex-stumblers and others who happen upon the site. It was set up in response to concerns over accounts of some who were hostile to, or even simply critical of spammers being put under review. There was a discussion as to what to do next in the philosophy group.
You are all welcome... check it out.
- John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) lyrics
- Dec 26, 2008 8:43pm (1 review) songwriting, holidays http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/john_...
War Is Over
(Happy Christmas Kyoko
Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
--John Lennon
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